The 2018 Rotos: Best Single Game Fantasy Football Performance

If you’ve played enough fantasy football, you’ve been on both sides of this scenario: Sunday’s slate of games play themselves out, with one team taking a pretty comfortable lead as the day goes on. The trailing team has one guy remaining for Sunday or Monday Night Football, and just when he’s chalked it up as a loss… BOOM. His final guy goes off for a massive game and he steals a victory. In this installment of the 2018 Rotos (see the other award winners here), we’re highlighting the top individual games of the year. These guys put a little something extra in their Wheaties on this particular gameday morning and ended up turning in electrifying performances that singlehandedly swung millions of fantasy matchups.

Contenders

Mitch Trubisky

Mitch Trubisky surprised a lot of people in his sophomore season for the Bears. From a traditional football perspective, he established himself as a legitimate starting QB — and a dual-threat one at that — and led the Bears to 12 wins and a division title. From a fantasy perspective, he provided a great return on investment for owners, finishing 15th in scoring for QBs despite being the 24th QB off the draft board before the year. This game in particular — a Week 4 win over the Bucs — was one of Trubisky’s best of the year, headlined by converting over 30% of his completions for touchdowns. It’s not everyday a QB can put up a 40+ point performance on just 26 passing attempts, especially with minimal rushing numbers, but Trubisky did it and gave us one of the best individual performances of the year.

As you can see in the above graphic, Zach Ertz just had one of the best fantasy seasons for a tight end ever. Ironically enough, it wasn’t even the best TE performance this season, but it was still one of the most prolific we’ve ever seen. And Week 10 against the Cowboys was Ertz’s top showing, as he tied his season-high in targets (16) and set season-best marks in receptions (14) and yards (154) while also catching 2 TDs. Ertz has excelled since becoming Carson Wentz‘s favorite target, and 2018 was his best year yet. Among 5 double digit reception performances and and 6 games over 20 PPR points, Week 10 stood out among the rest for the 2-time Pro Bowler.

We told you after seeing his preseason usage that Christian McCaffrey was going to be a beast in 2018. If you paid attention, you scooped him up in the 2nd round — if you didn’t, that’s on you. McCaffrey was essentially Carolina’s entire offense all season long, leading the team in both rushing and receiving. He had a handful of big games throughout the year, but Week 12 was hands down his most dominant. Turning 28 touches into 238 total yards is impressive enough, but finding the end zone twice was enough to give him one of the best fantasy performances of the year in a season that was full of accomplishments for Run CMC. This game also showcased his big play ability, featuring his longest run from scrimmage (59 yards) and reception (38 yards) of the season.

Finalists

Derrick Henry

Week 14 stats: 17 rushes, 238 yards, 4 TDs; 47.8 PPR points

Prior to Week 14, Derrick Henry hadn’t rushed for over 60 yards in a game in 2018. He and Dion Lewis had pretty evenly split their role in Tennessee’s offense, with neither truly able to gain the edge from a production perspective. Week 14 was when this all began to change — from this game on, Henry averaged 26.5 PPR points per game while Lewis’ average fell to just 7.1 over these four games. Henry’s late-season run probably won some of you your championships, and Week 14 was his most incredible performance of all. Henry carried the ball 17 times for 238 yards and 4 TDs including an insane 99-yard run that officially ended the Jaguars franchise.

Amari Cooper

When the Cowboys gave up a first-round pick at the deadline to get Amari Cooper, people laughed. Most found humor in the fact that the Josh Gordon cost the Patriots only a 5th round pick, and Golden Tate went to Philly for a 3rd, while the Cowboys shelled out a top pick for a receiver who had just 48 catches in 2017 and hadn’t impressed thus far in the Raiders’ lost season. But Cooper and the Cowboys had the last laugh, as Cooper was the 7th-best fantasy receiver from Week 9 on and propelled Dallas to a division title. And Cooper’s best performance by far was Week 14, when he toasted the Eagles for 10 catches, 217 yards, and 3 TDs, including the game-winning touchdown in OT. Cooper’s showing left him just 3 yards short of a 50 burger and was the top fantasy performance of any player this year, making him tough to beat for this award.

And your Roto winner for Top Fantasy Performance of the Year is…

It had to be Cooper. Derrick Henry’s performance was great, and just as important, as both came in the first round of the fantasy postseason, but Cooper has him beat both in points and importance — obviously, Cooper’s performance leading up to Week 14 had him in more starting lineups than Henry, who’d dropped single-digit point totals in 2 of 3 weeks leading up to his monster performance. All candidates were worthy, but Amari Cooper takes home this prestigious Roto.

Bottom Line: Pass-catching specialist, who? Christian McCaffrey returned to his college workhorse roots under new OC Norv Turner, and quickly put up Fantasy MVP-worthy numbers. He continued to flash his otherworldly receiving abilities, hauling in an NFL record 106 catches for 875 yards and 6 TDs. Yet where the usage really rose was the carries, as McCaffrey nearly doubled his 2017 total for 215 carries, 1080 yards, and 7 scores. These 321 total touches ranked third behind only Ezekiel Elliott and Saquon Barkley, and this newfound volume created the ultimate ceiling / floor combination. In the process, McCaffrey flashed both the elusiveness, breakaway ability, and most shockingly underrated power to redefine the workhorse model.

​New OC Norv Turner deserves immense credit for this outburst. His previous work with LaDanian Tomlinson proved he wasn't afraid to ride a smaller-back, as he's able to scheme his guys in space and in creative outside gaps versus just blasting them up the gut... but even still, never before had an NFL back played nearly 97% of the team's snaps. Yes, this number inevitably will fall in 2019, but McCaffrey should still hover around 85-90%, especially with Turner returning. Expect a similar buffet of weekly volume with the upside for even more efficiency should the Panthers beef up their line while their explosive young wideouts take a next step forward.

Ceiling Projection: 320 touches (100 rec.), 2,000 Tot. Yds, 13 TDs

Floor Projection*: 270 touches (70 rec.), 1600 Tot. Yds, 7 TDs

Actual Projection: 310 touches (90 rec), 1900 Tot. Yds, 12 TDs

*Note - Floors are done without injuries in mind. Of course the lowest floor is torn ACL first play of scrimmage. This assumes 16 games